This invention relates to a method and apparatus for the dry cooling of coke and, more particularly, to an improved method and apparatus where the temperature of the discharged cooling gas from the coke cooling apparatus is kept relatively constant over the entire operating time, through the regulation of the introduced cooling gas and/or the regulation of a combination of multiple flows of discharged cooling gas from the apparatus.
In the production of coke from coal, the coal is heated to elevated temperatures in the absence of air. Heating is done in a battery of coke ovens, and on completion of the coking operation, the incandescent coke is removed in batches from the coke ovens. Since the hot coke will readily burn if exposed to the oxygen in the ambient atmosphere, it must be quickly cooled.
One method of cooling the hot coke is through quenching with a water spray. Another method, a dry method, involves the cooling of the coke by circulating a gas through the coke charge from the lower to the upper end of a cooling chamber. The heated gas may then be withdrawn from the cooling chamber for subsequent use.
In dry coke cooling systems which do not have a prechamber for the hot coke, the coke charges are introduced directly into the cooling chamber. Both the gas serving as the cooling medium and the coke therefor leave the cooling chamber at temperatures which may fluctuate from charge to charge. This interferes with various subsequent treatment processes of both the hot cooling gas and cooled coke, often requiring expensive techniques to attain relatively uniform temperature from batch to batch. Such a problem exists in utilizing the latent heat held by the discharged gas in a subsequent process, such as for coal preheating, where it is highly desirable that the preheating gas be of relatively uniform temperature.